


Peace at Last

by The Muse of Apollo (mtwb)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Christmas, F/M, Harmony & Co, Harmony & Co Advent Collection, Harry off to war, Lemons, Sad, Smut, War time, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 07:42:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16782631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mtwb/pseuds/The%20Muse%20of%20Apollo
Summary: The war is over, and Harry needs to see the one person he’s missed the most. Written for Day 1 of the Harmony & Co (18+) Advent fest.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Peace at Last
> 
> Pairing: Harry Potter/Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley/Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy/Ginny Weasley
> 
> Rating: NC17
> 
> Warnings: angst, mentions of canon-level violence, minor character death (mentioned), major character death (mentioned), smut and kinkiness, alternative universe

December 24th

Hermione thought that it should be snowing. But it wasn’t. It looked like London’s chances of a white Christmas were pretty slim, mainly due to the nearly constant rain that had been falling for the last two weeks. The only thing that had changed with the weather was the freezing rain that had come down on the 20th of December that had caused the entire city to come to a screeching halt.

Not that Hermione cared about the weather at all. The only thing she really noticed about it was that the gloominess fit her mood perfectly. She was depressed and she had been for three years. Three long and torturous years he’d been gone, and she was sick of it. She was just tired of waiting, tired of missing him constantly. She was just tired.

After Voldemort had regained his body after the Triwizard Tournament, Harry had changed. He no longer allowed himself to slack off or be lazy when it came to his studies. In fact, he became somewhat militant on training and learning as much as he could. Hermione learned later that Professor Dumbledore had granted Harry access to a time turner which allowed him to fit in many years of training into just a few months. During their fifth year, Harry had become a stranger. He didn’t really hang out with Hermione or Ron any longer, but instead spent all of his time somewhere at Hogwarts learning new magic.

It had taken an intervention to get him to come back to her. Hermione had finally caught him out one day and stunned him. She tied his skinny arse to a chair and had sat on his lap. She’d then ennervated him and explained several facts of life to her very best friend. One of those facts being that she was desperately in love with him and that she was not going watch while he ran himself into an early death.

Harry had broken her heart. He had simply explained that he couldn’t be with her and that she should let him go. So, she’d slapped him and left him tied to the chair as she walked out of the room. She didn’t look back.

She only made it a few steps before she heard him sobbing. The noble idiot had lied to her. So, she had run back into the empty classroom, retaken her seat on his lap and kissed him for all she was worth. He resisted. For a moment.

After that, they were together. Harry was much more open with her and let her in on what he was doing, but he wouldn’t let her train with him. He and the Headmaster had apparently worked out a plan and she wasn’t going to be allowed to be a part of it, no matter how much she wanted to be.

Hermione remembered the rest of her fifth and sixth years fondly. Harry made sure to spend some time with her every day and they were so happy. Harry still spent an inordinate amount of time training, but Hermione couldn’t talk him out of whatever scheme he and Professor Dumbledore had baked up.

At the end of their sixth year, the war had heated up and Harry had dropped a bomb on her. He was leaving. He and Dumbledore were going on a quest to get rid of Voldemort and his forces. Hermione had begged him not to go, but Harry had explained that they had a plan and that if he didn’t go Voldemort would win. She’d fought him, saying she didn’t care, that she only wanted him. Truth be told, Hermione could admit, that she had said some awful things to Harry that night. All he had done was to hug her and say the words she had waited years to hear.

“I love you, Hermione.”

Then Harry had let her go and walked away. She had attended her seventh year during the oddest year at Hogwarts ever. Deaths were being reported daily on both sides, and the castle came under threat several times by Death Eaters. All students were given mandatory defense training courses that were meant to help if the Castle’s wards were ever breached.

Hermione herself had lived the entire year in a sea of anger, frustration, and regret. Her Harry had gone to war and she hadn’t even told him she loved him before he left.

About six weeks into their first term of Seventh Year, Hermione received her first coded letter from Harry. The marauder's passphrase had been very useful to them and Hermione was grateful that she could, at last, have some correspondence with Harry, even if she couldn’t write back.

This state of affairs had been going on for three years now. Hermione had graduated with honors and had taken up a Healing apprenticeship at St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, hoping that she could help with the war even in a small way.

She’d moved into a small flat in Diagon Alley and had spent the two years after graduation living for the letters Harry would send her every few weeks. The contents of those letters usually only consisted of inanities and small talk. Harry never divulged anything that he and Dumbledore were doing, which just caused her frustration to grow. She missed him, and she wanted him to come home.

Hermione sighed as she looked upon her naked form in the mirror. A little black dress hung on the corner of her vanity waiting for her to slip into it. Hermione gazed on her face. She even looked tired. No amount of cosmetic charms could hide the weariness in her eyes, and she wasn’t going to glamour them just to hide the fact that she often felt dead inside. 

She grabbed the dress reluctantly and slipped it over her head, arranging it so that it fell into the proper places on her body. Hermione did not want to get dressed up and attend the Weasley’s Christmas party, but she knew she didn’t have much of a choice. She’d stayed close with the Weasleys after graduation. She’d been there for them when Bill and Charlie had been ambushed and killed. The loss of the two eldest Weasley children had hit the entire family hard, and Mrs. Weasley had become even more protective of the rest of her brood, which had somehow come to include Hermione. So, Hermione knew she couldn’t get out of going to the family’s Christmas celebrations, even if she knew that there wouldn’t be much in the way of celebrating.

An hour later after finishing getting ready, Hermione apparated to the Burrow and knocked on the door.

“Hermione, dear! Happy Christmas,” Mrs. Weasley greeted, opening the door wide. “Come in, come in. Everyone else is already here.”

“Happy Christmas, Mrs. Weasley,” Hermione said, giving the Weasley matron a good hug.

“Oh, dear, how many times have I told you to call me Molly?”

Hermione just smiled and pulled away from their hug.

“Never mind, never mind. Go on into the living room, everyone will be thrilled to see you.” Hermione smiled again and did as she was told.

The remaining Weasleys were all in attendance and greeted Hermione fairly enthusiastically. There was a dampener on everyone's spirits, and it was noticeable. They were happy to be there and to see her, but the specter of Bill and Charlie’s death hung over the entire family.

Ron greeted her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Hermione, love, how are you?”

“Hey, Ron.”

Ron pulled back and grinned at her. “Pansy’s been asking for you. She’s been hoping you’d come over and have dinner with us.”

“I’d love that. And where is your lovely other half?”

“Oh, she popped off to the loo, she’ll be back. The baby’s been driving her nuts.”

Hermione laughed. “Around this time during pregnancy, babies have a tendency of doing that.”

“Look at you, going all healer on us.”’

“Well I am fully qualified now, you know?”

Hermione stepped away from Ron, her eyes settled on Draco Malfoy. She had to stifle a groan. Despite knowing for sure that he was on their side in the war, she still felt uncomfortable around him. Ginny was attached to his side and was smiling at him with a slightly goofy expression. Hermione shuddered at the thought of what the ferret must have done to the youngest Weasley to get her to look like that. Then she wished vehemently that she had someone – Harry – that would make her look like that.

“Ginny, how are you,” Hermione said taking a seat across from the young redhead.

“I’m good, Hermione.”

Hermione nodded at Draco and then struck up a conversation with Ginny, though it was hard at times to keep Ginny’s attention. Ginny seemed to always be paying some attention to Draco, which made conversation hard.

Because of that, Hermione floated around the group and tried to catch up with her adopted family. The only person missing was Fleur who had spent her time in France since Bill’s death. Hermione hadn’t been close with the French veela, but she knew that Fleur had sought shelter and comfort with her family after her husband had died.

After an hour of mingling, Mrs. Weasley called everyone to the dinner table and they all settled down to a nice meal. It was quieter than usual, especially after Mr. Weasley had asked for moments of silence for Bill and Charley, both of whom had an empty chair set up at the table in their honor.

They were just settling into dessert when a sound of apparition was heard out in the front garden.

“I wonder who that might be,” Mrs. Weasley asked, getting up from the table and heading towards the door. “We’re not expecting anyone else.”

Molly opened the door and looked out. Then she gave a loud shriek and hurtled through the door. The rest of the family and Hermione scooted out of their chairs and hurried towards the door, each of them wondering what could have drawn such a reaction from the Weasley matron.

Hermione passed through the door right after Mr. Weasley, her wand in hand. She didn’t really know what to expect, but she was sure that if Death Eaters were attacking they’d know it already. Mrs. Weasley wasn’t likely to fling herself towards Death Eaters without letting others know. The woman was way too protective and sensible to do that.

What Hermione didn’t expect to see was the older woman practically crushing a raven-haired, green-eyed young man to her chest sobbing into his shoulder.

“Harry?” Hermione whispered.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry Potter was tired but extremely happy. After two weeks in the hospital, he was finally able to leave and see the one person he had longed to see for three long years. After checking her flat – which he knew about because he owned the building – and finding it empty, he made his way to the Burrow where he suspected she was celebrating Christmas with the Weasley family.

The past three years had been very hard for Harry Potter. He’d spent a lot of time training and going on missions, but it was the downtimes that were the worst. During those times all he could think about was her and how much he loved and missed her.

Harry wrote her coded letters whenever he had the chance, but because they were doing all of their work from hiding, he wasn’t able to receive letters in return. As time passed, Harry had a sinking feeling about returning to Hermione. He figured that there was absolutely no way she hadn’t moved on. How could she not? She was beautiful, smart, ambitious – perfect. Harry had been quite surprised that she had wanted to date him when she could do so much better.

He could remember the day that she had tied him to a chair vividly. Harry had been avoiding his friends for months, mostly because he wanted to keep them as far away from his war training as possible. But she had shredded his plans to pieces and made his fifth and sixth years at Hogwarts some of the best times of his life.

It had been heartbreaking when he’d had to leave her. Hermione hadn’t taken it well, not that he had expected her to.

Take me with you, she’d begged.

When he told her no, she’d gotten angry and had said some hurtful things.

“I knew you were always going to hurt me, Harry, but I didn’t think you would do this.”

“If you go, you’re going to die. You’re no match for him, you know that!”

“I thought you loved me.”

That last one had been the worst, of course, because Harry did love her. He was fighting for her. She was why he had to leave, why he had to fight. In the end, he’d just hugged her and told her that she was wrong. That he did love her and that he always would.

Then he’d walked away, never really expecting to see her again.

-:::-

The three years after he left Hermione and Hogwarts behind were the hardest of his life. He and Professor Dumbledore (who had told him to call him Albus, weirdly enough) had spent those years moving from one hiding spot to another as they searched for and destroyed Tom Riddle’s Horcruxes and planned raids on Death Eater encampments. By the time a year had passed, Harry had lost count of the number of Death Eaters he’d killed. Often times he wondered that if he did make it out of the war if Hermione would even want to look at him again. Why would she want to be with someone with so much blood on their hands?

After another year, Harry was numb. The only thing that kept him going was the few letters he’d been able to send to Hermione. It kept his hope alive, despite the roadblocks that he and Albus kept hitting when it came to the Horcrux hunt.

They’d found the locket quite easily. Albus had been able to figure out who R.A.B. was and they’d questioned the only living being who would know anything about Regulus Black (outside of the Malfoys): Kreacher. Kearcher had told them the heartbreaking story of Sirius’ brother and how Kreacher had failed to destroy Voldemort’s soul anchor. After that, it was quite simple to open the locket and smash it with the Sword of Gryffindor.

After that, they spent another year looking for the next Horcrux. In the end, they’d found the ring at the home of Marvolo Gaunt. That had not been a fun expedition. Harry had ended up having to disarm and stun the Headmaster due to the compulsion on the ring which for whatever reason didn’t affect Harry at all. That was how Harry had ended up becoming master of the Elder Wand. Slytherin’s ring joined the locket not long after that.

Then they’d hit another roadblock. Dumbledore knew that Riddle wanted founder’s objects for his soul anchors, but there were no other known artifacts that belonged to the founders still in existence, or at least none that they knew about.

To offset their setbacks during that second year, they upped their game when it came to taking out the Death Eaters. They were fairly successful. Bellatrix Lestrange was taken out during that year and Harry himself had been able to destroy Fenrir Greyback.

In the end, they’d found the last three Horcruxes through sheer luck. After Lestrange was killed (her husband and his brother had been taken out the year before), Harry was able to claim the ancestral Lestrange vault where they found Hufflepuff’s cup which turned out to be another Horcrux.

Ravenclaw's diadem ended up being the hardest to find. In the end, they’d struck upon the idea of talking Helena Ravenclaw, the house ghost of Ravenclaw Tower at Hogwarts. They’d struck gold because the ghost was able to tell them about the diadem and the fact that the artifact was located in the Room of Lost Things.

After that, Voldemort was their next target. They’d been able to draw him out quite easily because the man had a huge ego. It was easy to send him a letter and goad him into a duel. Voldemort brought Nagini with him, which let Professor Dumbledore take care of the final Horcrux while Harry kept Tom busy. Once Harry got the signal that Voldemort was mortal once more, he’d gotten a few lucky shots in and had ended up victorious though seriously injured.

For the last two weeks, he’d been in the hospital recovering. During that time all he could think about was going back to Hermione. His biggest fear was that she would have moved on and found someone else. After all, she hadn’t been happy with him leaving. Harry wouldn’t blame her if she had moved on. He’d be devastated, but he wouldn’t blame her.

The Burrow looked the same as ever. It was still the lovable quirky place that had become a home to him during his early years at Hogwarts. He had only just apparated near the front garden when the front door was thrown open revealing Molly Weasley looking at him suspiciously. That changed quickly when she shrieked and hurled herself towards him, wrapping Harry in a tight hug. Harry smiled despite his sudden breathing problems and hugged her back.

He was still hugging her moments later when he heard the voice he had dreamed about every single night for the last three years.

“Harry?”

Harry pulled back and glanced over Mrs. Weasley’s shoulder. He grinned at Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys who were standing behind her staring at him in shock.

“Happy Christmas!”


	3. Chapter 3

Harry had only spoken those two words when Hermione imitated Mrs. Weasley by hurling herself at him and wrapping him in a rib-busting hug. Harry could feel Hermione sobbing into his shoulder, which caused him to hug her tighter.

“Oh, ‘Mione, I missed you so much.”

That just caused the witch to cry harder and hug him tighter. Harry didn’t know how long they stood there holding each other, but by the time he finally pulled back a little to look at her, he noticed that all the Weasleys had gone back inside (not surprising given that it was fairly cold outdoors).

He stared into his love’s blood-shot eyes and smiled softly. It felt so good to hold her again.

“Harry…” Hermione whispered, then she fell back into his embrace. “I missed you too. So much.”

Harry smile got larger.

She pulled back, then she did something that completely surprised him. She slapped him across the face. “I hate you, Harry Potter!” Then she fled into the Burrow, leaving Harry standing there in complete shock.

He shook his head a few moments later, then sighed. “Welcome home, Harry.”

-:::-

Two hours later Harry flopped down on the bed in his rented hotel room. He’d stayed at the Burrow for a couple hours and caught up with his adopted family. He hadn’t seen Hermione again. Ginny had told him that Hermione was upstairs and that had been about all Harry could find out. He wasn’t going to go and search Hermione out. To Harry, Hermione had every reason in the world to hate him. There wasn’t anything he could think of that would change her mind. In fact, he was pretty sure that if she learned of some of the things he had done over the last three years, she’d hate him even more.

So he had caught up with the Weasleys. And Malfoy and Parkinson. It hurt a bit that he’d missed Ron’s wedding, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Harry could tell how much Ron and Pansy loved each other. It surprised him that they got along so well, but they did. She balanced out the Gryffindor in Ron that no one else could. Ron brought out the friendly and spirited lady in Pansy that had been completely absent during their time at Hogwarts where she was known to be a bit of a frosty bitch.

The more surprising thing, for Harry at least, had been Ginny and Malfoy – there was no way on Earth that Harry would ever call Malfoy by his first name. When Harry had left Hogwarts, Ginny had been dating Dean Thomas. To come back and have her dating Malfoy...well, that had been a complete shock. Harry had known that the ferret had flipped sides in the war and that the Order had taken him in, but he hadn’t known that he’d been staying at the Weasleys or that he and Ginny had become an item. It was weird. Damn weird. Mostly because he could see that Malfoy had serious feelings for the youngest Weasley, something that Harry would have sworn the ferret wasn’t even capable of.

Weird.

The Weasleys had been ecstatic that Voldemort was dead. Harry hadn’t been able to tell them much (Professor Dumbledore had told Harry to keep the details of the Horcrux hunt to himself), but he had been able to tell them that for the most part, the war was over. The sense of relief that they felt was palpable. Mrs. Weasley had sobbed into Mr. Weasley’s chest, obviously having a hard time with the new situation given how much the Weasley family had sacrificed during the Second Blood War. After Harry had told them about Voldemort, the entire two hours he had been there had been a bit of a celebration of the end of the war more than the small family (if you could call the Weasleys small) Christmas celebration.

In the end, Harry had excused himself. For one, he was still recovering from his injuries and had quickly tired himself out. Second, he was sick of holding back his heartbreak over the loss of Hermione. It was obvious that his three-year absence had caused her to hate him and that she had moved on.

Harry groaned and buried his face in a pillow. Now he just had to figure out how to move on himself.

-:::-

Hermione noticed that it was louder in the Weasley’s living room than it had been in months when she finally came back downstairs. For months, the exuberance of the Weasleys had been dimmed somewhat because of Bill and Charlie’s deaths. When she entered the living room everyone looked up.

“Hermione! Harry brought the greatest news!” Ron exclaimed, jumping up to give her a hug. “You-Know-Who is dead!”

Hermione squealed as Ron spun her around, laughing like a madman and shouting “The war is over, the war is over!” repeatedly.

“Ronald Weasley! Put me down!”

Hermione hit him on the top of the head and Ron finally sat her back on her feet. When Ron pulled back he gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry, ‘Mione, I’m just so happy it’s over!”

Hermione just nodded and looked around. Her heart dropped when she didn’t see the one person she had hoped to see. Harry Potter wasn’t there.

“That’s okay, Ron, I’m happy too,” Hermione said. “Where...where did Harry go?”

“He left about twenty minutes ago.”

“H-he left?”

Ron nodded, looking at her carefully. “What happened between you two? When he got here you didn’t look like you ever wanted to let go of him, but when he came in he looked like someone had slapped him across the face.”

“I did,” Hermione said, her head down in shame. For the last two hours, she had struggled to get control of her emotions.

Ron grabbed her elbow and dragged her into the kitchen so they could talk more privately. Hermione looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Why in Merlin’s name did you do that?”

“I just snapped, okay? I mean he left me! He left me, and I know he had to, but still. He left me for three years! How can I get over that?” Hermione broke free of Ron’s grip and paced back and forth in the small kitchen. “He just left, and I couldn’t even write him or see him for three years! He could have died and I wouldn’t have even known about it!”

She broke down sobbing, which caused Ron to wrap her in a tight hug. “Oh, Hermione, it’s going to be okay, he’s back now.”

Hermione shook her head.

“He...he left again. I drove him away! How could I do that? I’ve waited three years for him to come back to me and the moment he gets here I slap him and tell him that I hate him?”

Hermione sobbed into Ron’s chest, letting out all the anguish she felt over how she had treated Harry. 

“There, there, Hermione, it’s going to be okay,” Ron said, rubbing her back. “He’s staying at the Cauldron, so you can go make this right. I’m sure he’s just as miserable as you are. He loves you, and I’m pretty sure he’s not going to stop just because you whacked him one.”

Hermione pulled back and nodded. “I should go see him.”

“Come and say goodbye to everyone else. Pansy will owl you later this week and we can get together for dinner sometime after the New Year. I’ll see you at Fred and George’s New Year Party?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there. There has to be someone there to keep the twins from killing everyone.”

“Awe, they’re not that bad anymore.”

Hermione just snorted. She grabbed her coat and wished the rest of the Weasleys a good night and a Happy Christmas while apologizing for leaving early.

She flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and walked into the pub with a determination she hadn’t felt in years. Harry Potter wouldn’t know what hit him.

-:::-

Harry sat up when he heard someone pounding on the door to his room. With a groan, he got out of bed and padded his way to the door. Before he opened it, he pulled out his wand and looked through the peephole. 

Hermione Granger was standing on the other side of the door. Harry pressed his forehead to the door and put his wand away. 

He opened the door, not knowing quite what to expect. What he didn’t expect was for Hermione to fly into him and wrap him in a hug. Solely by reflex only, Harry hugged her back. He hadn’t really expected to be able to hug her again after how she had reacted to him earlier.

“I’m so sorry, Harry, so sorry.”

“Oh, Mione, it’s okay,” Harry replied softly, pulling her closer to him.

Hermione shook her head. “I shouldn’t have been like that. I don’t hate you, I’m just...I have just been so angry with you for three years.”

“I understand, I really do.” Harry pulled back and dropped his hands back down to his sides. “I’d hate me too, so I do understand.”

“But I don’t, Harry. Hate you, I mean. I love you, so much, and I’ve spent every moment of the last three years loving you more than the moment before and I just...I just missed you so much and I was so worried...I...I love you, Harry Potter.”

Hermione sobbed and Harry pulled her back to him, wrapping his arms around her waist. A few moments later when she’d gotten herself under control, Harry felt her pull back. The next thing he knew she was kissing him. 

Harry gasped, but quickly recovered to kiss her back. Their kiss deepened while they slowly made their way backward. The backs of Harry’s knees hit the bed and he flopped down on his back, Hermione falling with him. Harry moved his hands up and down her back, loving the feel of her. 

Soon they were out of breath and Hermione pulled back. She tucked her head onto his chest and sighed contentedly. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Harry.”

Harry said nothing and just enjoyed the feel of the love of his life lying on top of him. He had missed her so much. It was great to finally be home.


	4. Chapter 4

Harry and Hermione spent the next few hours just enjoying each other company. Hermione didn’t move from her position on top of Harry for the entire time. It was almost as if she were holding him down to prevent him from leaving again. If someone had asked her if that was what she was doing, she wouldn’t have been able to deny it.

Because she was worried. What was going to happen now? Harry was back, Voldemort was dead, they should be able to be together now and start building their lives. But was that what Harry wanted? Sure they had kissed (and had kissed several times more after that), but they both studiously avoided any deep questions about the war or about their future. 

Eventually, however, it seemed like they couldn’t put it off any longer. 

“I was so mad at you, Harry,” Hermione said softly. “I wanted so much to hate you for leaving me.”

Harry sighed. “I can’t regret leaving, Hermione. I...I mean I wish I hadn’t had to, but in the end, it was down to me. I had to kill him. If I hadn’t he would have killed me, he would have killed you, he would have killed everyone we love and care about.”

“I know that,” Hermione snapped, finally pulling away from him and standing up. She looked down and readjusted her dress, which had moved around during their snogging. “I know that. I do. But I don’t understand why I couldn’t go with you? Why didn’t you let me go?”

Harry sat up and looked at her harshly. “I couldn’t lose you, Hermione! Do you know what it would have done to me if I had lost you to Voldemort or his minions? I don’t have a reason to live without you in my life!”

“And don’t you think that goes both ways, Harry Potter? I love you - I’m in love with you. You’re it for me. I’ve spent the last three years worrying that you’d be killed and I wouldn’t even know about it!”

Harry’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m sorry. I...I just wanted to keep you safe.”

Hermione sighed and then walked over and sat on Harry’s lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have slapped you earlier. I was so happy to see you, but I just...I was just so angry with you so often.”

Harry nodded. 

“I love you, though.” Hermione blushed. “I tried to move on, you know? During my seventh year, several guys asked me out. But even the thought of going out with someone else hurt. Last year a colleague asked me to dinner, but I couldn’t. You’re it for me. I could never move on from you.”

Harry leaned forward and kissed her softly. It had hurt to hear her talk about moving on, but it was pushed aside by knowing that she hadn’t been able to. She was still his. The kiss quickly deepened, their tongues sliding in and out of each other’s mouths. Harry slowly drew the strap of Hermione’s dress down her shoulder. He pulled his mouth away from her kiss and trailed a path down her jaw, neck, and shoulder. Hermione moaned and held his head as he came back to suck on her neck, surely leaving a mark.

Harry pulled away, panting hard. “I love you too, Hermione Granger.” And then he kissed her hard and stood her up. Slowly he worked her dress off her and admired her body as he pushed her back onto the bed. He looked into her eyes, somehow knowing that she wanted this as much as he did. He climbed up over her and started kissing her again. They’d only made love a few times during their sixth year, but Harry could remember each and every time like it was yesterday. Her beauty always took his breath away. “So beautiful,” Harry whispered as he trailed kisses down her body, wanting desperately to taste her. He stopped momentarily at her breasts, secretly happy that he hadn’t had to mess with taking off her bra. He sucked and nipped at both of her nipples for several moments before moving his mouth away, enjoying the breathy sounds that continued to flow from his love. 

“Harry!” Hermione moaned out when he swirled his tongue around her belly button. She could feel him grin smugly, and she resisted the urge to slap him again. Her irritation quickly faded as Harry slipped his hands through the strings of her knickers and pulled them down her long legs. His kisses as he worked his way back up her legs were driving her crazy. “Stop teasing me, Harry Potter!” 

The smug bastard was grinning again, Hermione thought. A moment later she had no thoughts at all as Harry finally moved his mouth to where she wanted him most. He had been good at this back at Hogwarts too. Even their first time he had delighted in eating her pussy. “Harry!”

“Easy, love, I’ll get you there,” Harry said, holding Hermione’s hips down. He quickly moved his mouth back to her cunt and captured her clit between his lips and gave a strong suck and stroking her with his tongue. She was so wet for him, it was easy to slide his fingers into her. He curled his index finger, searching for that one spot that he knew would push her over the edge. Once he found it, Hermione’s back arched and she toppled over, coating his face and mouth in her juices. He worked her through her orgasm softly and slowly, enjoying -- as he always had -- the fulfillment of making her cum.

When she finally relaxed, Harry climbed up over her and kissed her hard. Hermione moaned into his mouth and moved her hand down his chest. It was then she realized that he was still fully clothed. “Harry, get your clothes off. I want to feel you.”

Harry smiled and kissed her again before standing up and pulling off his clothes. Hermione gazed at him hungrily. She crawled over and pulled him by the hips back towards the bed once he’d taken off his boxers. Hermione pulled him closer. Harry was now standing at the edge of the bed while Hermione was kneeling in front of him. She bent down and took him into her mouth, sucking softly. She enjoyed hearing the moans coming from her lover. It made her feel powerful, knowing that she could provide him just as much pleasure as he gave her. 

Hermione pulled back and smirked up at him as his hips moved forward seeking her mouth. She wrapped a hand around his cock and fell backward, making him follow her. He ended up between her spread legs. “I need you in me now, Harry. Please. I missed you so much.”

Harry leaned down, supporting his weight on his hands, and kissed her. Slowly, oh so slowly, he eased himself into her. Hermione moaned and wrapped her legs around his waist. She had almost forgotten how much she enjoyed making love to him. 

Harry slowly found a pace that they both could enjoy. He kissed her passionately, whispering his love into her mouth. They came together a few moments later, both crying out their joy at being together once more. 

Harry’s strength abandoned him and he fell down on top of her. Hermione wrapped her arms around him, enjoying having him so close. 

After a few moments, Harry pulled back a bit and kissed her softly. When he pulled back, he smiled down at her. “Merry Christmas, Hermione.”

Hermione grinned up at him, happy he was home. “Merry Christmas, Harry.”


End file.
